Mike, the campfire, his thoughts, and the waiting

As Mike travels to find the door to Ashena, he wonders to himself of the new world he will see and of those yet meet.

     Desc: As Mike made his way along the side roads towards his final destination ,and that being the door to Ashena,  (guided by the same internal compass that drew the rest of the six ever closer to the door) Mike found himself wondering had the others found the door yet, and were they waiting for him. All the time partially wondering if all this about the world of Ashena was true, that the world of Ashena and those he sought to help there was indeed real. Though he had been partially wondering this to himself, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt in his heart of hearts that it was all indeed true.

   

  As Mike cleared the thoughts from his mind for a moment and quietly listened to the slow drone of his scooters engine, he saw what he knew was a squirrel lying right in his scooters path, believing it was acting like a deer caught in the headlights. Mike merely maneuvered around the little creature so as to not hit it and continued on his way.

    

     As he drove ever further west towards his final destination, Mike pictured in his minds-eye once again the map he had so eagerly and carefully placed before himself back at his home on the kitchen table. Remembering the map in the every detail it had the time he saw it. From the side roads that he would have to take, to the kilometers that he would have to travel, to even remembering even how much time he figured it would take him to reach his destination.

    

     But what he remembered most was that towards the end of his journey, that it would take him deep into a forested and untouched area of Ontario (which had amusingly surprised Mike as he did not think that such a place still existed anywhere in Ontario). He did not know then how long or how far he would be able to take his scooter, but that mattered little to him. He had a world to interact with, new friends to meet, and a destiny to fulfill.

    

     As he crested a hill and then went down the other side, only to crest yet a second one and go down its side, Mike looked to his watch strapped to his right wrist. He judged that he had thirty minutes till he reached that untouched forest. From there who knows what. Who knew how he would reach its interior and the door. But he would figure that out when he got there. For now he would just enjoy the scenery around him.

    

     Looking North Mike watched as a farm house went slowly moving by. Mike wondered if the situation was as dire as the eternal seer had said, then would Mike ever see this world of his again. Would any of his new friends see it again. Nevertheless they had a job to do and two worlds to save. If the six of them fell in the defence of the two worlds than even without truly knowing the others Mike knew they were all ready to sacrifice their lives readily.

    

     Turning back towards the path before him Mike found himself trying to clear his mind of the possible events that he far well knew he could not foresee. Instead he tried once again to focus his mind on the here and now and the scenery around him. And it was as if he was seeing this world for the first time, taking true delight as he took in the sight of every farm house, house, tree, animal, and even boulder as if he had just witnessed them through baby eyes for the first time. Maybe it was because he was fighting for a world that this world of Earth did not yet know of, but whose danger was no less real.

    

     As time wore on Mike became aware as the sound of his scooters tires changed which brought his attention back to the path before him. Realizing then that the path beneath him was now a dirt one, he knew then that he had made it to the outskirts of the forest. As he drove ever further in the direction of the forest's deep core he looked to the path before him. Even from the outskirts of the forest the tree line was indeed dense. And as Mike eyed the land before him, all the while trying to see if he could make his way around the trees on his scooter (while at the same time wondering if he should just get off his scooter there for safety reasons) he saw only thick stands of trees and just as he was about to give up and just park his scooter and get off and go on by foot, it was as though the trees (sensing his approach) decided to part as they seemed to magically part to either the left or right and thus a path opened out before him.

    

     Seeing then that he had a clear path now to take, Mike merely plotted a course and drove straight on. He drove on for nearly an hour, going from sun to shade and back again. For the sun poked through on occasion as the leaves of the trees would part and allow the sun's rays to enter through to the forest path below.

    

     Mike could hear no sound coming from this forest save for the occasional sound of a breeze bellowing between the trunks of the tall and majestic trees and the sound of his own scooters engine as its whine filled the air around him.

    

     Thirty minutes more into the ride through the forest Mike had reached his destination. The area was somewhat of a clearing in the land, a clearing that lay two to three feet below him as he brought his ride to a stop on the crest of the clearing. From his vantage point on the crest of a ridge on the east side of the clearing (as he was flanked to his immediate North and South by a stand of trees) that descended into the clearing by a natural dirt ramp, Mike could see a clearing that was bounded to its South and North by level hills (the North being topped by trees) and the South hill being a clearing of its own. To the West the clearing seemed to go on as far as the eye could see, and at to the NorthEast just as far. Through the clearing flowed a stream of crystal clear water that ran from beyond the clearings NorthWest border and traveled SouthEast into the clearing and then from West to East it traveled, only to turn just eight feet from where Mike stood now and then the stream took of again NorthEast and out of Mikes field of view. The steam moving in one continuous and flawless motion through the clearing before him.

    

     It was about five o'clock in the afternoon, or so his watch told him as he looked to check it. The others were not yet here, though they all soon would be Mike knew. Driving in then his scooter into the clearing, Mike made his way for the clearings South side. Reaching it he turned off his scooters engine and got off his helmet. Taking off his helmet, Mike then placed it on the three foot high ridge of the clearings South side. Taking off his blue jean jacket he placed it with his helmet on the ridge and glanced around once again at his surroundings.

    

     "Well" he said to himself,"I guess I wait."

     Though he could not see a portal or door of any sort from where he stood at the time, Mike felt as if his eyes were always being drawn to a spot just on the North side of the stream directly across from where Mike stood. This was where he knew the door must be, though at the moment it was not there.

    

     As Mike sat himself down upon the same ridge as he had placed both his helmet and jean jacket on, he listened to the forest for the sounds of life that must inhabit such a place. As he strained his ears to listen, he became aware that he could hear no signs of life at all (may they be animal, insect, or anything else remotely resembling forest life at all). Mike found himself wondering and not quite understanding just how this could be, for a forest was a place of nature and as such wherever nature was found abundant life could be found as well.

    

     As the day continued to ware on, Mike wonder if it wouldn't be until much later that the others would arrive, sensing then that this would be so, he lifted himself up upon the ridge he was sitting on and decided to go and look for some wood with which to be a small campfire.

    

     "This being a forest" thought Mike to himself,"the place had to be littered with wood, fallen branches from storms past". Searching the immediate area, Mike surprisingly found very little in the way of fallen wood. Finding though enough to start a fire, Mike brought the newly found wood to the middle of the ridge that he had been sitting on and placed the wood down there. With the wood now placed he went back to the edge of the ridge and hopped down and then moved to stand beside his scooter. As he pulled up the seat of his scooter and leaned it to face his scooter's rear, as he did this he revealed the scooter's small trunk and pulled out of it a small collapsible spade. This spade Mike knew he would need to dig a small fire pit if the forest would permit it. Placing the scooter seat back down into its original and usual position, Mike walked back to the ridge and prepared to climb back on top of it again. Climbing back upon the ridge and walking back to where he had just moments ago placed the wood, he extended the neck of the spade to its full length of some three feet and prepared to dig.

    

     As he dug the pit Mike found himself wondering just when this door to the other world would appear and just how were they to open it. As he dug a foot down into the top of the ridge, he thought that whenever the door appeared and however and whatever it took for them to open it, that they would do just that and would then pass through it and into this world of Ashena and then do what they could to help. With the pit now dug, Mike dropped the spade to the right of him and started the task of stacking the wood in the middle of the pit to make the fire. He arranged the wood in (what he called) a log cabin arrangement, where the wood was placed in the form of a square with space for ventilation between each level of the stacked wood allowing for air to flow freely throughout the campfire and its interior. In the middle of the campfire he placed most of the drier pieces of wood and some slightly charred wool (this slightly charred wool he knew wood catch well). Having been an outdoorsman all his life since the age of five (Mike being twenty-five years of age now) meant that he knew enough of how to start a good campfire to supply warmth, to use as a guard fire (though he doubted that they would need it here), and as a good source of heat for cooking on. He had placed most of the  drier pieces of the wood in the center of the campfire so as to have a good central source of heat from which to cook from and he had arranged the wood the way he did so as to have a good stable platform for cooking on for some time (as the wood making up the log cabin design was the thicker pieces of wood than the wood within the campfire).

    

     With the campfire arrangement now complete he pulled from his pant's left front pocket a long piece of metal that was used to start fires as it would spark easily and spake a lot, drawing then from his belt (on the right side of his body) a thick bladed survival knife from its protective sheath, Mike struck the metal rod with the blade of the knife sending a cascade of sparks within the campfire's interior. The first blow doing nothing, so he struck it again a second, then a third time before the resulting shower of sparks took to the charred wool and started the campfire to burning. At first the campfire arrangement produced nothing else but smoke, but soon it turned to small flames. With just a few breaths from Mike's lungs, the flames grew quickly and then the campfire was finally lit. Happy at what he had just made for him and his soon to be meet new friends, Mike then moved back towards his scooter to retrieve the rest of what he needed (placing the metal rod back into his pocket end sheathing his blade).

    

     Opening back up the scooter's trunk he pulled out what was a reusable shopping bag, that contained within a large wooden spoon and three cans of beans, carrots, potatoes, and tuna each. Placing the bag on the ground beside his feet, he pulled out one at a time three two litre plastic bottles of water which he then proceeded to place within the bag and then he proceeded to pull out a can opener, a grill, and a medium sized metal pot from which to cook in. Putting the pot's lid and the can opener in the bag and while holding the grill in his left hand, he once more closed his scooter's trunk temporarily and then picked up the bag and the pot by the pot's thick wire like curved handle with his right hand moved back towards the campfire from which he would cook the fine feast on.

    

     As he climbed the ridge again and returned to the fire, Mike placed the metal grill upon the fire and sat himself down. Next to his campfire that he had made, he began then with the can opener to open each can and placed the contents from within each of them into the pot. As he did all this his mind drifted to what he had pictured the world of Ashena to look like, his mind tracing over the eastern Troll populated mountain ranges of the Tall Ones (the Tall Ones referring to the mountain range having the tallest mountains in the world of Ashena). He also traced in his mind's eye the deserts of the Barren Reaches, the meadows of the elven archers, the plains of the centaurs, and the outer islands of the amazons. Lastly he allowed his mind's eye to try and picture what the Tower of the Eternal Seers looked like from without. For none of the six of them had ever witnesses the world of Ashena from without the structure of the Tower of the Eternal Seers.

    

     They all new of the Tower as being part of a larger structure and that being the castle of Riunea and that this castle was by far the strongest bastion of good in the entire world of Ashena. They had not actually seen the castle nor the rest of the world to which they were now destined to go and help protect, they had only seen the world from old maps and blueprints of the many lands and the keeps and wizard towers that protected them. They all knew the outer islands were the home of the fractured amazons, and that the elves made their homes in the meadows of Summerlend. They also knew that the proud and even sometimes even more aggressive centaurs made their homes in the plains of Strife (the plains being called so as it was the place where many of their people's finest warriors had died fighting the Gray Ones more than a millennia ago). They also knew that of all the craftsmen of that world the best were the elves, for there was no dwarves in the world of Ashena, unlike the many stories and myths of their own world, there were no dwarves to be found leaving it to the elves to pickup the slack and in bring forth the finest of craftsmanship in the areas of smithing, wood working, and stone work.

    

     Though in many ways' the world of Ashena and its many peoples was much like the worlds of myth and fantasy that had been either dreamed up by writers of their day and age, or by myth makings from times long since passed. For there was being amongst the people of Ashena that were of the myths of their world such as the elves, centaurs, trolls, amazons, and even wizards, magic, dragons, and drakes. And it figured into their thinking that since the races of Ashena were so much like the ones in myth and legend and story telling in their own world that both worlds at one point in their histories must have interacted with one another. But there were differences between the realities and myths of the two worlds such as the Trolls, where in their own world they were always characterized as evil, brutish, and ruthless, in the world of Ashena they were anything but. They were industrious, intelligent, and hard working. They lived in medieval towns and cities within the shadows of the Tall Ones mountain ranges. They even had built all of the wizard towers that was used to both protect and repel invaders of the troll's homelands.

    

     As Mike continued to think of the world to come he absent-mindedly continued to empty an already empty can of kidney beans into the pot, with the sudden realization that he had already emptied the can's contents into the pot his thoughts were forced back into the here and now once more. With the contents of the cans now held within the pot, Mike twisted the cap of one of the bottles of water and broke its seal, twisting the cap off then he held it up over the pot and pored some of the water into it. With the pot now half filled with water, beans, potatoes, carrots, and tuna, Mike gently lifted the pot onto the grill and allowed it to slowly cook away. As Mike lifted the pot's lid out of the bag and placed it upon the pot, he thought that it would be a fine feast, not superb, but nonetheless a fine one. He also thought that the tuna was a added touch, one that the Bandit would like since all knew she was a somewhat vegetarian and would only eat meat from a fish if any at all. Knowing then that it should be a fine feast for all to enjoy, Mike climbed back up to his feet and picking back up the bag, moved to the side of his scooter once again to get the hand sized bowls and large plastic spoons and metal ladle from the trunk of his scooter (the bowls and spoons from which to eat from and eat with, and the ladle from which to serve with). Returning a few moments later from his scooter once more to sit back down before the campfire, Mike now waited for the others to arrive, all the while tending to the campfire and the contents slowly cooking away in the pot atop it, and while still allowing his thoughts to drifted to a world not yet seen and still as of yet not visited.

Author's Note

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